How MedicWatch sources its data
Where MedicWatch's data comes from, how it is processed for accuracy and faithfulness, and how to verify it against the originals.
Written by the MedicWatch editorial team. Last reviewed 25 April 2026.
Every page on MedicWatch traces back to a publicly published determination of a UK healthcare regulator. This page explains how we get the data, how we process it, and how you can check it.
The three regulator sources
MedicWatch's launch dataset draws from three regulator hearing services: the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) for doctors, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for nurses and midwives, and the Dental Professionals Hearings Service (DPHS) for dentists and dental care professionals. Each of these publishes its determinations on its own website. We crawl those websites, fetch the published documents, and process them into structured data.
How the launch dataset was processed
The launch dataset was processed in autumn 2026 by a careful read-through of every available historical determination. The processing for each document followed a strict per-document protocol: extract the practitioner's identity and registration reference, identify the hearing type and dates, capture the charges and findings in the regulator's own language, identify the outcome and any sanction duration, and write a 50–80 word plain-English summary that begins with attribution to the regulator.
The plain-English summaries are explicitly attributed to the regulator in every case — "The MPTS tribunal found that…", "The NMC found that…", or "The GDC tribunal decided that…" — so it is always clear that the summary is reporting the regulator's finding, not MedicWatch's view.
Faithfulness rules
We follow strict rules to keep the record faithful. We do not use words like "dangerous", "unsafe", "monster", "predator", or "abuser" in our summaries — even when the underlying conduct is serious — because those are characterisations that a regulator may or may not endorse. We mirror the regulator's own language.
We never aggregate findings into a rating, score, or risk number. The product is a faithful record of regulator decisions; it is not a judgement layer on top of them.
Ongoing updates
After launch, new determinations are added shortly after they are published. The same per-document protocol is used. Each profile page shows the date of the most recent verification against the regulator's register.
How to verify our data
Every determination page on MedicWatch links directly to the source on the regulator's site. If the source has been removed by the regulator (for example, an NMC outcome that has aged out of the rolling main page), we note this on the page. The structured fields on our pages are exactly what the source determination says — if you spot a discrepancy, please submit a correction.
Sources
Submit a correction to a MedicWatch page.
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